Bottle closure



Nov. 18, 1958 v M. L. GOLD 2,860,802

YBOTTLE CLOSURE Fil'ed Feb. 11, 1957 MQX L G060,

INVENTOR.

United States Patent BOTTLE CLOSURE Max L. Gold, Los Angeles, Calif.,assignor, by mesne assignments, to Harold H. Kahn, Cleveland, Ohio, asescrowee Application February 11, 1957, Serial No. 639,432

1 Claim. (Cl. 21545) This invention relates to closures for bottleswhich have an external bead on the end of the bottle neck serving tohold a cap swedged thereon when the bottle is filled at the bottlingworks.

The present invention is particularly useful in manually capping abottle, to retain therein a portion of its contents under pressure,after the swedged cap has been removed.

.The invention represents an improvement on the bottle closure shown inU. S. Letters Patent No. 2,586,440 issued February 19, 1952 to WilliamSatz. The patented closure included a plastic shell enclosing in-themouth thereof an expanded neck sealing and bead gripping device which isinstalled in operative relation with the bottle neck by merely pressingthe shell axially on to the bottle neck. The closure is removable fromthe bottle neck by merely pulling axially on the shell.

It was possible for the sealing device of the patented Satz bottleclosure to be pressed up into the shell thereof when not being appliedto a bottle neck. Some difficulty was then experienced in returning saidsealing device into the mouth of the shell where it must be for theclosure to be applicable to a bottle neck.

An object of the present invention is the provision of a bottle cap ofthe general type of the Satz patented closure, in which the sealingdevice may be returned into the mouth of the shell with relative easewhile the cap is disassociated with a bottle.

Another object of the invention is to provide such a bottle cap in whichthe sealing device is provided with a guide stem which functions notonly as an aid in keeping the sealing device aligned with the shell butalso as a button responsive to pressure from a finger to return saiddevice to it starting position in the mouth of the shell.

The manner of accomplishing the foregoing objects as well as furtherobjects and advantages will be made manifest in the followingdescription taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in whichFig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a preferred I embodiment ofthe invention positioned in alignment with a bottle neck as in readinessfor applying the cap of the invention to said neck, or as the capappears immediately after removalfrom said neck.

Fig. 2 is a view like Fig. 1 showing the cap applied to the bottle neck.

Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view taken on the plane 33 of Fig. 1 andlooking down.

Fig. 4 is a cross sectional view on the same plane looking upward asindicated by arrows 44.

Referring specifically to the drawings, the invention is there shown asembodied in a bottle cap 10 including a rigid shell 11, which ispreferably molded of plastic, and a sealing device 12.

The shell 11 is of a generally tubular shape, tapering towards the upperend, is open at both top and bottom ends, and has a substantiallycylindrical main bore 13 which communicates downwardly with a flaringmouth 14, the

, 2 latter terminating at its lower edge in an internal flange 15. i i

The top end of shell 11 has a deep hollow 16 formed therein by a thin,cup-shaped wall 17 terminating at its lower end in a central'hole 18. .Aseries of six radial guide walls 19 extend downwardly from and reinforcewall 17 and have their inner edges flush with hole 18. Lower edges 20 ofwalls 19 lie in a common radial plane to function as a stop in a mannerto be made clear later.

The sealing device 12 is mounted in the bore 13 and flaring mouth 14when in its starting position as shown in Fig. 1. This device comprisesa closure disc 25 and guide stem 26 which are preferably moldedintegrally of soft rubber. It also includes a flexible mcans27 whichextends radially downwardly and outwardly'from the outer edge of saidclosure disc .into expanding engagement with flaring mouth 14 andinternal flange 15. 1 'Flexible means 27 may be variously formed butpreferably is a unitary stamping from spring metal includ ing a centralwasher 28 slightly tapering upwardly to a central rimmed hole 29. Formedintegral with washer 28, extending radially outwardly and downwardlyfrom its outer edge, is a series of springing fingers 30. Each of thesehas an inturned end portion 31, which is bent back on itself to form abead engaging element.

When the sealing device 12 is in its starting position,

as shown in Fig. l, the spring fingers 30 engage the flaring mouth 14and internal flange 15 in expanding relation o as to support the closuredisc 25 and stem 26 as positioned in this view. This is accomplished bymaking stem 26 with a slightly larger diameter than the inside diameterof hole 29 and then drawing the stem through this hole to bring theclosure disc 25 flush against the concave tapered bottom surface ofwasher 28.

' The stem 26 is made of a length to cause this to now extend upwardlyinto concentric guided relation with inner edges of radial walls 19(Fig. 1)

A bottle neck 35 is shown in Fig. 1 which is of the standard-typeuniversally used for bottling carbonated drinks. This bottle neck has anexternal bead 36 at its extremity to which cap 10 automatically locksitself in sealing relation when applied as follows:

Cap 10 is moved axially downward onto bottle neck 35 from its positionshown in Fig. 1. The closure disc 25 first engages the end of bottleneck 35 and closes this by the pressure with which the yieldable means27 resists its *being constricted to the point where it will be receivedin the lower end of bore 13 of shell 11, as the latter is presseddownward. The inward constriction of yieldable means 27 brings thebottle-neck-bead-engaging elements 31 inwardly to engage bead 36 frombeneath thus locking the closure disc 25 in tight sealing relation withthe bottle neck.

When the shell 11 has been pushed onto the bottle neck until lower stopedges 20 of walls 19 engage washer 28 (Fig. 2), the fingers 30 arecompletely confined in bore 13 and they are thus retained in theirlocking relation with bead 36 until shell 11 is deliberately pulledupwardly to release fingers 30, allowing these to expand into engagementwith flaring mouth 14 and internal flange 15 as shown in Fig. 1.

It is to be noted that when the sealing device 12 is pushed into shell11 as shown in Fig. 2, when sealing a bottle, the stem 26 extends asubstantial distance upwardly into the hollow 16 formed in the upper endof shell 11.

It is ordinarily unnecessary to touch this stem to aid in returning thesealing device 12 to its starting position shown in Fig. 1, after thecap 10 has been used as shown in Fig. 2 to cap a bottle. Just pullingthe cap ofl ordinarily accomplishes this.

It is possible however to break the bead 36 off a bottle,

as by dropping the same, and now and then the sealing device 12 isinadvertently'pressed fully into the shell'll While the cap 10 is not ona bottle. When this happens w the Pr en nve t on P es re f om avfin rapplied to the stem 26 is sufiicient to return sealing device 12 to itsstarting position shown in Fig. l.

While-only a single embodiment of the invention is shown herein, it isto be understood that various modifications may be made in this withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appendedclaim.

I claim:

In a cap for manually closing an-externally beaded bottle neck, thecombination of: a generally tubular shaped rigid shell provided with anopen top, said shell having a main bore with a lower flaring mouthterminating at its lower edge in an internal flange; a slidable sealingdevice within said bore compn'sing a closure disc; flexible meansextending radially outwardly and downwardly from said disc intoexpanding engagement with said mouth and said flange, lower portions ofsaid flexible means extending inwardly to engage the external head ofsaid bottle neck from beneath when said disc is placed against said neckand said shell slid downwardly over said device, thereby locking saiddisc in closing relation with said neck, said open top of said shellhaving a deep finger-fitting hollow formed downwardly therein, therebeing a central hole in the bottom of said hollow which is substantiallysmaller than the outer opening of said hollow; and a guide stem providedon said closure disc, which stem extends axially upwardly from said discinto said hole so as to be guided by said hole whereby said stem extendsupwardly through said hole and a substantial distance into said hollowwhen said cap is applied to a bottle neck.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,347,605 Magnesen Apr. 25, 1944 FOREIGN PATENTS 817,255 Germany Oct.15, 1951

